7 comments:

Ahhh, very interesting. Thanks for posting this video. As a musician, a Project Manager, and a bloke in the dating scene, a casual fear of failure constantly lingers in the background of my mind. I always like advice like this, which is to say, advice which invites me to look at things a little differently to get the most out of a situation.

I never get any new direction right first time, and lord knows, I've tried plenty. Every big change I've made - Bobbins to Scary Go Round, Scary Go Round to Bad Machinery, art changes - has given me new hurdles to overcome.

When I look at some of my contemporaries, whose work, mildly refined, remains almost identical to how it was when it took wing, I'm glad that I experimented and took risks, and was ready to fail. Because I definitely wasn't the finished article in 1999, or 2002, or 2005, or 2009 - and I'm still not now.

What it has perhaps cost me in audience numbers is more than counterbalanced by knowing that I'm not yoked to repeating myself over and over again.

And that reinvention that you've been so consistent is an impressive feat; personally I've suffered from bouts of complacency over the years, and rather than being a relaxing bath of indolence, they're more like a worrying feeling that life is passing you by as you gradually get slower and slower...

Anyway, good job! I think I might have read SGR and then moved on again (I only came to it in its last year) but Bad Machinery feels like it has more staying power: the extra depth of the plots is really paying off. I hope that's being reflected in your audience growing.

Thanks, John. I agree with what Mr. Cushtie said, and I think that your readers appreciate your ability to push yourself. I just re-discovered your work from an old bookmark on my browser, and went back and read everything. Your art and writing have gone from good to excellent over the years. On a personal note, that video spoke to me, as I've gone back to University for a new career, and started over with a new direction in my own art.

Thank you for this! I didn't know when I clicked it how well it would apply to my own life as a technical type. He makes life as an artist sound awfully similar to life as an engineer. Standing at the crossroads between Big Change and More Of The Same, and being quite afraid of failure, I'm glad I was clicking back through your blog today to hear this. I needed the pep talk.

Thanks for all that you do! I love Bad Machinery and I love your glimpses into the creative and business aspects of writing such great webcomics. I look forward to whatever comes next, too.